Taking Cattle to the Bank

More than a century ago, western rangelands in New Mexico consisted of occasional trees widely interspersed with open areas of grasses. Over-grazing and fire suppression have changed much of the western landscape from the native grasses that grew so prolifically to forests thick with trees and woody shrubs. The woody plants predominate now because the grasses were so overgrazes by cattle that they would not support the periodic fires that used to burn through the area, killing off the woody vegetation. As a result of the loss of grassy areas, the cattle that graze today are crowded onto unsustainably small areas of rangeland, further damaging the grasses and stream banks.

An innovative partnership is working to restore and preserve native grassland species on federal rangelands and to help ranchers at the same time. The Valle Grande Grass Bank in New Mexico is a partnership between the Conservation Fund, the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association, the U.S. Forest Service, and national forest grazing permits in northern New Mexico. It allows ranchers in the area to graze their cattle on a stretch of land called a "grass bank".

Here's how it works: First, the Conservation Fund bought a 240 acre ranch and acquired a grazing permit for 36,000 acres of good-quality federal grazing land, which the organization named the Valle Grande Grass Bank. The Conservation Fund then made an offer to local ranchers that would benefit both the ranchers and the rangelands they lease from the federal government. The ranchers move their cattle from over-grazed federal rangeland to the grass bank. During the time their cattle are grazing at th e grass bank, the ranchers work with the Forest Service to improve their home pastures. The ranchers remove trees and woody shrubs, let native grasses grow enough to support a fire, conduct prescribed burns, and install fences around vulnerable riparian areas to allow stream banks to recover from the onslaught of cattle hooves. Ranchers typically participate in the grass bank for several years so that the new vegetation on their section of federal rangeland becomes well established.